1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to media playback devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to using media playback devices with peripheral control interfaces.
2. Background Art
Media devices such as DVD players, Blu-ray players, set-top boxes, media streaming boxes, and other devices have established a ubiquitous presence in the modern household. By providing entertainment functionality accessible through a simple interface such as a remote control and an on-screen display, these media devices are often much easier and more convenient to use than a more generalized device such as a personal computer. Additionally, by including only the necessary hardware for media functionality, media devices can adopt energy efficient, slim and unobtrusive form factors that may be prohibitively expensive for more generalized devices.
However, precisely because media devices tend to support only a limited range of functionality such as media playback, peripheral device support may be severely restricted. For example, input reception to a media device may be restricted to signals from an infrared remote control. However, a user may wish to use a USB mouse, a wireless keyboard, a game controller using the Bluetooth protocol, or another input device that is not directly supported through native functionality of the media device.
In a similar manner, output may be limited to playback of video on a display and audio on an audio device directly connected to the media device. However, the user may also want to use certain peripherals, such as Bluetooth enabled speakers for audio output and a USB printer to print still images from a movie. Unless the media device has natively integrated Bluetooth audio and USB printing support, the user cannot use the media device with the desired peripherals. Given that there may be a wide range of different peripherals that the user may want to use, providing support for all possible peripherals natively on a media device may prove to be costly and impractical due to additional development and hardware costs.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by finding a way to support a wide variety of peripheral devices on a media device without incurring the costs and drawbacks of natively implementing peripheral support.